How to add or remove icons in Windows Control Panel

Updated: 06/02/2020 by Computer Hope
adding removing icons

The Control Panel is one of the most important parts of your Microsoft Windows system. If you'd like to customize which icons appear in your Control Panel, continue reading for suggested methods.

Note

If you're running Windows Me, XP or later, we recommend that you do not customize your Control Panel icons. Instead, we suggest that Control Panel be configured to show icons in Classic View, see: Unable to find icons in Windows Control Panel.

TweakUI

Microsoft Windows XP and later revisions of Windows users can enable and remove Control Panel icons with the TweakUI program.

After TweakUI has been installed, check and uncheck the icons you want or do not want to display in the Windows Control Panel under the Control Panel section.

Adding Control Panel icons

Users can add a Windows Control Panel icon by installing the program or hardware device related to the icon. If doing this does not install an icon into the Windows Control Panel that is either listed in the below chart or has been present in the past, follow the steps below.

  1. Reinstall the program or hardware device associated with the program. During reinstallation, the necessary .CPL file is copied back onto the computer.
  2. Manually copy, expand, and extract the .cpl file back into the Windows System or System 32 directory.
Note

Unless your program or hardware device has a .cpl file associated with it, the program will not create an icon in your Control Panel.

Manually running a Windows Control Panel .cpl file

If you are unfamiliar with what each .CPL file does, try one of the following suggestions.

  1. Manually execute many of the .CPL files by typing control <name of .cpl file>.cpl. See the control command page for additional information and help with this command.
  2. Users can also use the rundll32 file to open the Control Panel icons. Below is an example of how a user would open the Date/Time Properties window using the rundll32 file. To run an alternate .cpl file, replace the TimeDate.cpl with a different .cpl file.
rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL TimeDate.cpl

Hiding Control Panel icons

To hide an icon from being displayed in the Control Panel, delete or move the icon as explained in the steps below, or hide the icon by editing the control.ini file.

Removing Control Panel icons

Using the Microsoft find utility, locate all .cpl files on your computer.

Once all the .cpl files are found, locate the file associated with your icon and delete the file or move it to an alternate location.

Files associated with Control Panel icons

Below is a small chart of the available files and their associated Control Panel icons. Note that not all of the files or icons below are available in all versions of Microsoft Windows. They may be missing because the associated hardware device, program, or other setting is not installed. Icons that have an asterisk in the availability section indicate that third-party software must be installed before the icon is displayed.

Control Panel Icon Associated file 95/98/ME NT 2000/XP Vista/7/8
AC3 Filter ac3filter.cpl *

Accessibility Options

access.cpl

Yes Yes Yes
Add/Remove Hardware hdwwiz.cpl Yes Yes Yes Yes

Add/Remove Programs

appwiz.cpl

Yes Yes Yes Yes
Adobe Gamma adobe gamma.cpl * * *
Automatic Updates wuaucpl.cpl Yes

MS-DOS Console

console.cpl

Yes

Date/Time

timedate.cpl

Yes Yes Yes Yes
DirectX directx.cpl *

Display

desk.cpl

Yes Yes Yes Yes
Fax fax.cpl Yes Yes

Find Fast

findfast.cpl

Yes Yes
Firewall firewall.cpl Yes Yes

Fonts / Mouse / Keyboard / Printers Properties

main.cpl

Yes Yes Yes Yes

GSNW

nwc.cpl

Yes

Intel Pro Set

proset.cpl

Yes

Internet properties

intelcpl.cpl

Yes Yes Yes
Infrared Settings properties irprops.cpl Yes
Java Control Panel jpicpl32.cpl *
Java Plugin x.x.x - This icon and its associated file changes by version. plugincplx_x.cpl * * * *
Joystick Properties or Game Controllers. joy.cpl Yes Yes Yes Yes

Licensing

liccpa.cpl

Yes

Macfile

sfmmgr.cpl

Yes

Mail and Fax

mlcfg32.cpl

Yes
Microsoft Mail Post Office wgpocpl.cpl Yes

Modems

modem.cpl

Yes Yes
Multimedia / Sounds mmsys.cpl Yes Yes Yes Yes
Network Connections properties ncpa.cpl Yes Yes Yes
Network Properties netcpl.cpl Yes
Nview Desktop Manager nvtuicpl.cpl *
ODBC32 odbc32.cpl Yes Yes Yes
Passwords password.cpl Yes Yes Yes
PCCard devapps.cpl Yes
Ports ports.cpl Yes
Power Options properties powercfg.cpl Yes Yes
QuickTime quicktime.cpl * * *
Regional Settings intl.cpl Yes Yes Yes Yes
Scanners and Cameras sticpl.cpl Yes
Security Center wscui.cpl Yes Yes
Services and Devices srvmgr.cpl Yes
SCSI Adapters devapps.cpl Yes
Server srvmgr.cpl Yes
Speech Properties sapi.cpl Yes
System Properties sysdm.cpl Yes Yes Yes
Tape Devices devapps.cpl Yes
Telephony or Phone and Modem Options Properties. telephon.cpl Yes Yes Yes
TweakUI tweakui.cpl * * *
UPS ups.cpl Yes
User Accounts properties nusrmgr.cpl Yes
VirusScan avsmcpa.cpl * * * *

Microsoft Windows stores information about each of the icons that are shown in the Control Panel in files with the .CPL extension. If these files are present and not corrupted, Microsoft Windows displays these icons, otherwise, these icons will not be visible. The Control Panel files can be in the C:\Windows\System, C:\Windows\System32, or C:\Winnt\system32 folders once new hardware or software is installed.